Infrastructure equipment, communications device and methods

ABSTRACT

An infrastructure equipment (eNodeB) is configured to transmit a paging notification which indicates that configuration information which is broadcast in a cell to all communications devices which are configured to operate in accordance with a network controlled function has changed. Communications devices which are configured to perform the network controlled function are provided with an indication that they should receive the configuration information which is broadcast in order to reconfigure the network controlled function. A communications device which is not configured to perform the network controlled function may not recognise the paging notification or at least may detect that it does not need to receive the updated configuration information for the network controlled service. Such communications devices may therefore remain in an idle mode thereby saving power.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is based on PCT filing PCT/EP2017/073483, filedSep. 18, 2017 which claims priority to EP 16191990.7 filed Sep. 30,2016, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates to communications devices configured totransmit data to and receive data from a wireless communications networkand to perform a function which is controlled by the wirelesscommunications network. In some embodiments the wireless accessinterface is configured to transmit configuration information forconfiguring the function performed by the communications device. Thepresent invention also relates to methods of communicating usingcommunications devices, wireless communications network, infrastructureequipment and methods.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description which may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentdisclosure.

Third and fourth generation wireless communications systems, such asthose based on the third generation partnership project (3GPP) definedUMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture are able to supportsophisticated services such as instant messaging, video calls as well ashigh speed internet access. For example, with the improved radiointerface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user isable to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streamingand mobile video conferencing that would previously only have beenavailable via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy thirdand fourth generation networks is therefore strong and the coverage areaof these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to thenetworks is possible, is expected to increase rapidly. However, whilstfourth generation networks can support communications at high data rateand low latencies from devices such as smart phones and tabletcomputers, it is expected that future wireless communications networkswill need to support communications to and from a much wider range ofdevices, including reduced complexity devices, machine typecommunication (MTC) devices, enhanced MTC (eMTC) devices, wearabledevices, devices which require little or no mobility, high resolutionvideo displays and virtual reality headsets.

A current technical area of interest to those working in the field ofwireless and mobile communications is known as “The Internet of Things”or IoT for short. The 3GPP has proposed to develop technologies forsupporting narrow band (NB)-IoT using an LTE or 4G wireless accessinterface and wireless infrastructure. Such IoT devices are expected tobe low complexity and inexpensive devices requiring infrequentcommunication of relatively low bandwidth data. It is also expected thatthere will be an extremely large number of IoT devices which would needto be supported in a cell of the wireless communications network.Furthermore such NB-IoT devices are likely to be deployed indoors and/orin remote locations making radio communications challenging. A similarclass of devices is the Further Enhanced MTC (fe-MTC) [6]. Current areasof development are aimed at improving the operation of these types oflow cost devices so that they are power efficient and can operate inextended coverage, such as inside basements [6][7]. One of the desiresis to provide arrangements and techniques in which a power consumed bythese devices can be reduced and their reduced capability can bemanaged.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

Embodiments of the present technique can provide an arrangement in whichan infrastructure equipment (eNodeB) is configured to transmit a pagingnotification which indicates that configuration information which isbroadcast in a cell to all communications devices which are configuredto operate in accordance with a network controlled function has changed.Communications devices which are configured to perform the networkcontrolled function are provided with an indication that they shouldreceive the configuration information which is broadcast in order toreconfigure the network controlled function. A communications devicewhich is not configured to perform the network controlled function maynot recognise the paging notification or at least may detect that itdoes not need to receive the updated configuration information for thenetwork controlled service. Such communications devices may thereforeremain in an idle mode thereby saving power. An example of a networkcontrolled service is a multicast communications service in which aninfrastructure equipment may transmit multicast data for reception byany communications device. One example of such a multicastcommunications function is a single cell-point to multipoint (SC-PTM)function. An example of broadcast configuration information is systeminformation transmitted in system information blocks of an LTE standard,which is specific to a particular function.

Embodiments of the present technique can also provide an arrangement inwhich a communications device which is configured to perform or about toperform a function is configured to respond to a paging message toestablish a connection for receiving downlink data from aninfrastructure equipment to transmit an indication of the function beingperformed. The infrastructure equipment is configured to determine, inaccordance with a predetermined condition, whether the communicationsdevice should continue to establish the connection for receiving thedownlink data from the communications device, and in accordance with thepredetermined condition to transmit an indication to the communicationsdevice either to abandon the connection for transmitting the data to thecommunications device or to establish the connection and to transmit thedownlink data. In one example the communications device may be receivingor is about to receive multicast data transmitted as a multicastcommunication function such as SC-PTM. If the communications devicereceives a paging message from the infrastructure equipment as part of aprocedure to establish a connection for transmitting downlink data tothe communications device, the communications device may not be capableof receiving the downlink data and the unicast data contemporaneously orat least not on different carriers or narrowband carriers. By receivingan indication that the communications device is currently receiving theunicast data, the infrastructure equipment can determine whether tocontinue to establish the connection for transmitting the downlink dataor to abort the connection establishment. In other examples theinfrastructure equipment may direct the communications device to modifythe reception of the downlink data so that the unicast data and thedownlink data can be received on the same carrier or narrowband carrier.By receiving an indication of the function being performed by thecommunications device, of which the infrastructure equipment may beunaware because the communications device is performing the function inidle mode, the infrastructure equipment can prioritise whether thecommunications device should receive the downlink data or the unicastdata.

Various further aspects and embodiments of the disclosure are providedin the appended claims, including but not limited to, a communicationsdevice, infrastructure equipment, mobile communications system and amethod of communicating.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described by way ofexample only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which likeparts are provided with corresponding reference numerals and in which:

FIG. 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating an example of aconventional mobile communications system;

FIG. 2 provides a schematic diagram of a structure of a downlink of awireless access interface of a mobile communications system operatingaccording to an LTE standard;

FIG. 3 provides a schematic diagram of an uplink of a wireless accessinterface of a mobile communications system operating according to anLTE standard;

FIG. 4 provides a message sequence diagram and part schematic diagramproviding a simplified representation of a paging procedure for aconventional system;

FIG. 5 provides a message sequence diagram illustrating a transmissionof system information blocks (SIBs) providing configuration informationto communications device;

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation illustrating different groups ofcommunications device which are differently configured;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram representing a process followed by acommunications device (UE) when performing a single cell-point tomultipoint communications service (SC-PTM);

FIG. 8 is a message flow diagram part block diagram illustrating anembodiment of the present technique in which a paging indication isadapted to identify to a communications device configured to perform anetwork controlled function that configuration information forconfiguring that function has changed; and

FIG. 9 is a message flow diagram and part block diagram illustrating anembodiment of a further aspect of the present technique in which acommunications device provides an indication of a function beingperformed, which can be used to prioritise that function with respect toestablishing a connection for the communications device to receivedownlink data.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS Conventional LTE Network

FIG. 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basicfunctionality of a mobile telecommunications network/system operating inaccordance with LTE principles. Various elements of FIG. 1 and theirrespective modes of operation are well-known and defined in the relevantstandards administered by the 3GPP® body, and also described in manybooks on the subject, for example, Holma H. and Toskala A [1]. It willbe appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunicationsnetwork which are not specifically described below may be implemented inaccordance with any known techniques, for example according to therelevant standards.

The mobile telecommunications system, where the system shown in FIG. 1includes infrastructure equipment including base stations 101. Theinfrastructure equipment 101 may also be referred to as a base station,network element, enhanced NodeB (eNodeB (eNB)) or a coordinating entityfor example, and provides a wireless access interface to the one or morecommunications devices within a coverage area or cell represented by abroken line 103. One or more mobile communications devices 104 maycommunicate data via the transmission and reception of signalsrepresenting data using the wireless access interface. The core network102 may also provide functionality including authentication, mobilitymanagement, charging and so on for the communications devices served bythe network entity.

The mobile communications devices 104 of FIG. 1 may also be referred toas communications terminals, user equipment (UE), terminal devices andso forth, and are configured to communicate with one or more othercommunications devices served by the same or a different coverage areavia the network entity. These communications may be performed bytransmitting and receiving signals representing data using the wirelessaccess interface over the two way communications links.

As shown in FIG. 1 eNodeB's 101 are connected to a serving gateway S-GW106 which is arranged to perform routing and management of mobilecommunications services to the communications devices 104 as they roamthroughout the mobile radio network. In order to maintain mobilitymanagement and connectivity, a mobility management entity (MME) 108manages the enhanced packet service (EPS) connections with thecommunications devices 104 using subscriber information stored in a homesubscriber server (HSS) 110. Other core network components include thepolicy charging and resource function (PCRF) 112 a packet data gateway(P-GW) 114 which connects to an internet network 116 and finally to anexternal server 120. More information may be gathered for the LTEarchitecture from the book entitled “LTE for UMTS OFDN and SC-FDMA basedradio access”, Holma H. and Toskala A. page 25 ff.

LTE Wireless Access Interface

Mobile telecommunications systems such as those arranged in accordancewith the 3GPP defined Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture use anorthogonal frequency division modulation (OFDM) based wireless accessinterface for the radio downlink (so-called OFDMA) and a single carrierfrequency division multiple access scheme (SC-FDMA) on the radio uplink.The down-link and the up-link of a wireless access interface accordingto an LTE standard is presented in FIGS. 2 and 3.

FIG. 2 provides a simplified schematic diagram of the structure of adownlink of a wireless access interface that may be provided by or inassociation with the eNodeB of FIG. 1 when the communications system isoperating in accordance with the LTE standard. In LTE systems thewireless access interface of the downlink from an eNodeB to a UE isbased upon an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) accessradio interface. In an OFDM interface the resources of the availablebandwidth are divided in frequency into a plurality of orthogonalsubcarriers and data is transmitted in parallel on a plurality oforthogonal subcarriers, where bandwidths between 1.4 MHZ and 20 MHzbandwidth may be divided into orthogonal subcarriers. Not all of thesesubcarriers are used to transmit data (some are used for features suchas the cyclic prefix of the OFDM symbols). The number of subcarriersvaries between 72 subcarriers (1.4 MHz) and 1200 subcarriers (20 MHz).In some examples the subcarriers are grouped on a basis of 2^(n), forexample 128 to 2048, so that both a transmitter and a receiver can usean inverse and a forward Fast Fourier Transform to convert thesubcarriers from the frequency domain to the time domain and from thetime domain to the frequency domain respectively. Each subcarrierbandwidth may take any value but in LTE it is fixed at 15 kHz.

As shown in FIG. 2, the resources of the wireless access interface arealso temporally divided into frames where a frame 200 lasts 10 ms and issubdivided into 10 sub-frames 201 each within a duration of 1 ms. Eachsub-frame 201 is formed from 14 OFDM symbols and is divided into twoslots 220, 222 each of which comprise six or seven OFDM symbolsdepending on whether a normal or extended cyclic prefix is beingutilised between OFDM symbols for the reduction of inter symbolinterference. The resources within a slot may be divided into resourcesblocks 203 each comprising 12 subcarriers for the duration of one slotand the resources blocks further divided into resource elements 204which span one subcarrier for one OFDM symbol, where each rectangle 204represents a resource element. The resource elements distributed in timewithin a sub-frame and frequency across the host system band widthrepresent the communications resources of the host system.

The simplified structure of the downlink of an LTE wireless accessinterface presented in FIG. 2, also includes an illustration of eachsub-frame 201, which comprises a control region 205 for the transmissionof control data, a data region 206 for the transmission of user data,reference signals 207 and synchronisation signals which are interspersedin the control and data regions in accordance with a predeterminedpattern. The control region 204 may contain a number of physicalchannels for the transmission of control data, such as a physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH), a physical control format indicatorchannel (PCFICH) and a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH). The dataregion may contain a number of physical channels for the transmission ofdata or control, such as a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH),enhanced physical downlink control channel (ePDCCH) and a physicalbroadcast channel (PBCH). Although these physical channels provide awide range of functionality to LTE systems, in terms of resourceallocation and the present disclosure ePDCCH and PDSCH are mostrelevant. Further information on the structure and functioning of thephysical channels of LTE systems can be found in [1].

Resources within the PDSCH may be allocated by an eNodeB to UEs beingserved by the eNodeB. For example, a number of resource blocks of thePDSCH may be allocated to a UE in order that it may receive data that ithad previously requested or data which is being pushed to it by theeNodeB, such as radio resource control (RRC) signaling. In FIG. 3, UE1has been allocated resources 208 of the data region 206, UE2 resources209 and UE3 resources 210. UEs in an LTE system may be allocated afraction of the available resources of the PDSCH and therefore UEs arerequired to be informed of the location of their allocated resourceswithin the PDCSH so that only relevant data within the PDSCH is detectedand estimated. In order to inform the UEs of the location of theirallocated communications resource elements, resource control informationspecifying downlink resource allocations is conveyed across the PDCCH ina form termed downlink control information (DCI), where resourceallocations for a PDSCH are communicated in a preceding PDCCH instancein the same sub-frame.

FIG. 3 provides a simplified schematic diagram of the structure of anuplink of an LTE wireless access interface that may be provided by or inassociation with the eNodeB of FIG. 1. In LTE networks the uplinkwireless access interface is based upon a single carrier frequencydivision multiplexing FDM (SC-FDM) interface and downlink and uplinkwireless access interfaces may be provided by frequency divisionduplexing (FDD) or time division duplexing (TDD), where in TDDimplementations sub-frames switch between uplink and downlink sub-framesin accordance with predefined patterns. However, regardless of the formof duplexing used, a common uplink frame structure is utilised. Thesimplified structure of FIG. 4 illustrates such an uplink frame in anFDD implementation. A frame 300 is divided in to 10 sub-frames 301 of 1ms duration where each sub-frame 301 comprises two slots 302 of 0.5 msduration. Each slot is then formed from seven OFDM symbols 303 where acyclic prefix 304 is inserted between each symbol in a manner equivalentto that in downlink sub-frames. More details of the LTE up-linkrepresented in FIG. 3 are provided in Annex 1.

Conventional Downlink Data Transmission

In order to provide a better appreciation of the embodiments describedin the following paragraphs a conventional downlink transmission of dataafter a paging process will be briefly described. To transmit data to acommunications device (UE), it is necessary to locate a UE within awireless communications network and to establish a connection with theUE for transmitting the data to the UE. A process for establishing aconnection with a UE includes a paging procedure, which informs the UEthat the network has data to transmit to it so that the UE should enteran active state and establish a connection. To this end, a pagingmessage is transmitted to the UE as part of the paging procedure. Asummary of the paging procedure for LTE can be found in [2].

FIG. 4 provides a simplified representation of a paging procedureaccording to that which is currently proposed within LTE. As shown inFIG. 4 paging occurs when data is to be transmitted to a UE 104 on thedownlink. The data is received at the network and forwarded to theserving gateway 106. The serving gateway 106 then sends a downlink datanotification that it has downlink data to send to a UE to the MME 108.As explained above the MME 108 is responsible for mobility managementfor the UEs and therefore is aware of a current location of each UEwithin an area comprising a plurality of eNodeBs. The MME 108 then sendsa paging instruction to a group of eNodeBs in the area in which the UEis located, including the eNodeB 101 to which the UE 104 is currentlyattached. The eNodeB 101 then proceeds to transmit a paging message tothe UE.

As those acquainted with LTE will appreciate the LTE standard provides atechnique in which UEs can perform discontinuous reception (DRX) inorder to save battery power. Discontinuous reception allows the UE toreduce power to its receiver because according to the systemspecification a paging message will not be sent to a UE for apredetermined time. However, according to the specification the UEs areconfigured to “wakeup” and power up its receiver at each paging occasionin order to receive a paging message which maybe transmitted to the UEfrom an eNodeB. The time at which a UE wakes up and powers up itsreceiver to receive a paging message from the eNodeB is referred to as a“paging occasion”. Thus as shown in FIG. 4 the UE 104 periodicallypowers up its receiver at the predetermined paging occasions 400. Asalso shown in between, the UE powers down its receiver according to itsDRX cycle 402. Likewise the eNodeB will only transmit a paging messagefor that UE in the paging occasions 400 for that UE.

As shown in FIG. 4 when a paging occasion occurs for the UE, the eNodeB101 transmits in the PDCCH for the UE a paging identifier known as apaging-radio network temporary identifier (P-RNTI). The UE receives theP-RNTI from the PDCCH which also provides an indication of thecommunications resources of, for example, the shared channel(PCCH/PCH/PDSCH) in which the paging message will be transmitted.Therefore at step 406 the eNodeB 101 transmits an RRC paging messagewithin the communications resources of the PDSCH, which have beenindicated by the PDCCH in message 404. If the UE 104 detects anidentifier of that UE which is received within the paging messagetransmitted on the shared communications resources (PDSCH) 406, then theUE 104 performs a random access procedure 408 in order to requestdownlink communications resources from the eNodeB 101. There thenfollows an RRC connection setup exchange of messages 410 whichestablishes an RRC connection with the UE 104 so that the downlink datacan be transmitted to the UE in communications represented by an arrow412.

Transmission of Configuration Information

Wireless communications networks can be provided with a facility forbroadcasting configuration information to UEs for the UEs to performnetwork controlled functions. Those acquainted with LTE will appreciatethat such configuration information is referred to as system informationor other broadcast configuration messages such as SC-MCCH. The systeminformation is transmitted to UEs from a serving eNodeB. Systeminformation is transmitted to UEs to provide the UEs with aconfiguration to perform various functions to transmit and receive datafrom within a cell formed by the eNodeB. The system information includesa master information block (MIB) and a number of system informationblocks (SIB). The MIB is broadcast on a physical broadcast channel(PBCH) of the wireless access interface while the SIBs are transmittedon the PDSCH through radio resource control (RRC) messages.Conventionally the transmission of the SIB in the PDSCH is signaled tothe UE by transmitting a control message in the PDCCH (control channel).The MIB is the first thing which the UE detects and allows the UE toachieve downlink synchronisation. The MIB carries the most essentialinformation that is needed for the UE to acquire other information fromthe cell and includes for example a downlink channel bandwidth, a systemframe number and the eNodeB's transmit antenna configuration. The firstSIB1 carries information related to the cell in which the UE is operatedin order for the UE to access the cell and defines the schedules for theother SIB's. There are various other SIBs which are specified within LTEstandards.

An illustration of the communication of the SIBs to a UE is shown inFIG. 5. In FIG. 5 a message flow diagram is shown between an eNodeB 101and a UE 104. As can be seen the first system information is transmittedin the MIB which is transmitted in the PBCH represented by an arrow 501.The UE then detects an SI-radio network temporary identifier (RNTI)transmitted in the PDCCH 502 which communicates corresponding schedulingof the other SIBs. The scheduling of the transmission of the SIBs iswithin system information windows (SI windows) which occur periodicallyso that the SIBs are each transmitted in accordance with a predeterminedtime interval so that the UEs can detect the system informationtransmitted in each of the SIBs. As shown in FIG. 5 each of the SIB1,SIB2, SIB3 and generically SIBn are transmitted in the PDSCH asrepresented by arrows 504, 506, 508, 5010. The SIBs are each transmittedwithin an SI window 512 in accordance with a schedule signaled by theSI-RNTI transmitted in the PDCCH 502. As shown in FIG. 5 a PDCCHtransmission 502 is shown in FIG. 5 for receiving the SIB1 504, and itwill be appreciated that according a conventional arrangement a PDCCHtransmission, which includes the SI-RNTI would be made in order toreceive each of the SIBs 504, 506, 508, 510.

As illustrated in FIG. 6 the eNodeB 104 may serve different groups ofUE's 601, 602 which each may be configured in accordance with adifferent function or arranged to provide a different service to a user.Indeed a first group of the UEs 601 may be configured to operate inaccordance with a different LTE standard to a second of the groups ofUE's 602. Accordingly, some system information may be relevant to onegroup and not the other. Accordingly, as illustrated by two arrows 602,606, the first group may receive system information in a SIBm+1 604which may not be relevant to the second group of UEs 602. The secondgroup of the UEs may receive system information in a system informationblock SIBn+2 transmitted to the second group of UEs as represented bythe arrow 606 which may not be relevant to the first group of UE's 601.

Single Cell Point to Multipoint (SC-PTM) Transmission

Example embodiments of the present technique will be illustrated withreference to a network controlled function which provides a transmissionservice defined in LTE standards which is known as single cell point tomultipoint (SC-PTM) transmission. Single Cell Point to Multipoint(SC-PTM) transmission is a multicast transmission at the cell levelwhere user data is broadcasted to multiple UEs in the cell. This networkcontrolled function is useful to transmit data that is common to groupsof UEs such as software downloads. Different data services can bemulticast to different groups of UEs, for example one group of UEs maybe performing software updates and another group can be receiving videobroadcasts. In current LTE standards, SC-PTM utilises two types oflogical channels, namely the SC-MCCH (Single Cell Multicast ControlChannel) and the SC-MTCH (Single Cell Multicast Traffic Channel). TheSC-MCCH provides information on the data services available and whereeach data service is carried by a SC-MTCH. SC-MCCH and SC-MTCH messagesare carried by the PDSCH, which is scheduled by PDCCH.

An example of SC-PTM transmission procedures is shown in the flowdiagram of FIG. 7. As shown in FIG. 7, a first step S1 the UE detectssystem information relating to the SC-PTM service by receiving SIB20.The SIB20 provides configuration information relating to a configurationof the SC-MCCH, for example periodicity and modification period inrespect of how often the SC-MCCH can be changed.

In step S2 the UE waits for the next SC-MCCH period to detect either anSC-RNTI or and SC-N-RNTI. That is, the UE blind decodes the PDCCH usingSC-RNTI during the SC-MCCH period for a possible SC-MCCH message. Asshown in steps S4 and S6 respectively, the UE determines whether or notit has read either the SC-RNTI or the SC-N-RNTI. The SC-N-RNTI indicateswhether there has been a change in the system information associatedwith the SC-PTM service. At a certain point S6 therefore, the UEdetermines whether a change has occurred in the SC-PTM service. If achange has occurred then the UE is configured to receive the SIB20information which configures the SC-MCH. If no change has occurred thenthe UE proceeds to decision step S8.

In step 4 if the UE detects the SC-RNTI then it proceeds to step S10 todecode the PDSCH for the SC-MTCH configuration in step S10 and proceedsto step S12 in which it goes to the next sub frame. The UE then monitorsthe SC-MCCH period and if detected at step S14 then the UE proceeds tostep S6 to again detect whether the SC-N-RNTI is present in the PDCCH.Otherwise the UE proceeds to steps S16 to determine whether the SC-MTCHperiod has been reached and if so in step 18 to detect the PDCCH withthe G-RNTI to identify the resources of the PDSCH for receiving themulticast data service. After receiving the multicast data the UEproceeds back to the step S12 and goes to the next sub frame andcorrespondingly if the SC-MTCH period has not expired in step S16 or theG-RNTI is not detected in step S18 then processing proceeds back to stepS12. In step S8, if the SC-MTCH configuration has not been obtained thenprocessing proceeds back to step S2.

Accordingly, FIG. 7 provides a flow diagram in which a configuration ofthe SC-PTM service is provided via the SIB20 following which a procedureis followed in which between periods of SCMCCH, an SC-RNTI or SC-N-RNTIis detected on the conventional PDCCH and if so processing proceeds toacquire the multicast data from the SC-MTCH. Accordingly within a cell,an eNodeB may transmit multicast data to a plurality of UE's or groupsof UE's which have been configured to receive data in accordance withSC-PTM.

The SC-PTM is one example of a service which is configured by a SIB(SIB20). However the multicast data services are expected to change andhence the SC-MCCH containing configuration of these services and theSC-MCCH configuration itself can also change. Such a change is indicatedduring the SC-MCCH period via a DCI with CRC scrambled by SC-N-RNTItransmitted by the PDCCH. When the UE detects a PDCCH with SC-N-RNTI, itwould re-read SIB20 to obtain new SC-MCCH configurations and thenre-read SC-MCCH for new SC-MTCH configurations (or SC-MTCH configurationfor the multicast data service of interest).

For low cost and low power UEs it is desirable to provide the SC-PTMservice when the UE is in an idle mode. Such an arrangement findsapplication with 3GPP LTE standards concerning eNodeB-IoT and feMTC. InIdle mode the UE performs discontinuous reception (DRX) as explainedabove DRX with a DRX period equal to the UE's Paging Occasion. In orderto track for any possible changes to the SC-PTM services, in addition tothe Paging Occasion, the UE also needs to power up during SC-MCCH periodto detect for PDCCH using SC-N-RNTI, which would consume additional UEpower. Recognising that battery life is an important feature of lowpower UEs and that the multicast services are unlikely to change veryoften, compared to non-MTC multicast services, it is proposed to removethe need for SC-N-RNTI and instead use the existing system informationchange notification. The system information change notification is toindicate to UEs that there is a change in the SIB, where the eNodeBwould transmit a paging message indicating system informationmodification to trigger the UEs to re-read all the SIBs.

It should be noted that reading the entire SIBs, and even receivingpaging message on PDSCH, consumes a lot of UE battery power and using SIchange notification due to a change in a single SIB, i.e. SIB20, forSC-PTM would not be efficient.

As explained above with reference to FIG. 6, it is expected that UEswhich are configured to operate in accordance with different LTEstandards such as eNB-Internet of Things (IoT) and Further EnhancedMachine Type Communications (feMTC), in for example LTE Release-14standards will be deployed into a network that also serves UEs which areconfigured to operate in accordance with earlier versions of thestandard (legacy UEs), for example UEs configured in accordance withRelease-13 (eNB-IoT and feMTC). It will be appreciated that such legacydevices do not support SC-PTM and hence a change in the SC-PTM serviceleading to a cell wide paging for system information change indicationwould cause such legacy UEs to re-read the SIBs (or SIB1) therebywasting battery life, especially for devices that are in coverageenhanced region that requires numerous repetitions in order to decodethe SIB.

First Examples of an Improved UE Configuration

Embodiments of the present technique can provide an arrangement in whichan infrastructure equipment (eNodeB) is configured to transmit at apaging occasion a control message which indicates that configurationinformation associated with a network controlled function performed bythe UE has changed. A UE in idle mode can determine using the controlmessage whether or not the configuration information (systeminformation) associated with the function performed has changed. Assuch, any UE which does not perform that function does not identify ordetect that control message and so does not receive the paging messageor updated system information. As such these UEs which do not use thisfunction do not have to detect and decode the system information, whichmay be transmitted in SIBs, and therefore save power. In one example,the control message may include a specific Radio Network TemporaryIdentifier (RNTI) which identifies to the UE that a SIB identified bythe RNTI should be received to update system information associated witha function performed by the UE. Therefore not only do UEs which do notperform this function not have to detect and decode the SIB, but a UEwhich does perform this function only has to detect and decode theidentified SIB and so the UE avoids having to re-read all the SIBs orhaving to read SIB1 or even the paging message in order to determinewhich SIB has been changed. A UE that is not interested in such a SIBwould just resume its DRX.

According to some examples a paging notification is only transmittedduring the UE paging occasion similar to the existing paging procedure.Alternatively the paging notification is transmitted at fixed timesknown to all UEs, which may also be paging occasions for at least someUEs. It will be appreciated that although an illustrated application isto receive the SIB20, which provides system information for SC-PTM,embodiments of the present technique find application with any new SIBintroduced for features in different standards.

FIG. 8 provides an example illustration of embodiments of the presenttechnique. As shown in FIG. 8 a UE 104 a comprises a transmitter 801, areceiver 802 and a controller 803. Correspondingly, an eNodeB 101 acomprises a transmitter 810, a receiver 812 and a controller 814. Thecontroller 814 may be for example a scheduler which controls thetransmitter and the receiver of the eNodeB 104 to transmit and receivesignals in accordance with a wireless access interface such as thatspecified and according to an LTE standard as explained with referenceto FIGS. 2 and 3. In accordance with the present technique, the eNodeB101 a is configured to transmit at a paging occasion allocated to UE'sor a group of UE's a control message referred to as a pagingnotification. The paging notification is transmitted at the pagingoccasion in the PDCCH. The UE therefore detects an RNTI which isallocated to identify that corresponding system information associatedwith a particular function has changed. The specific RNTI has beentransmitted to provide an indication as to whether or not systeminformation relating to the particular function has changed sincepreviously receiving the system information associated with thatfunction. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 8 the UE 104 may be performing aDRX cycle in order to conserve battery. However after the end of a DRXcycle represented by a period of time as a dashed line 820, a pagingoccasion occurs as represented by a box 822. The paging occasiontherefore corresponds to a preconfigured time in which the UE 104 apowers up its receiver to receive a paging message via the PDCCH fromthe eNodeB 101 a.

The controller 803 of the UE 104 a may be implemented as amicroprocessor executing software or as a hardware processor or as somecircuitry. The receiver and the transmitter 802, 803 may be implementeda circuits, signal processors or some radio frequency componentsincluding integrated circuits. Although the transmitter, the receiverand the controller of FIG. 8 are represented as separate elements, itwill be appreciated that the functionality of these circuitry elementscan be provided in various different ways, for example using one or moresuitably programmed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitablyconfigured application-specific integratedcircuit(s)/circuitry/chip(s)/chipset(s). Similarly the transmitter 810,the receiver 812 and the controller may be implemented as circuitsincluding signal processors and radio frequency components.

In accordance with the present technique the paging notification mayindicate a new RNTI value which indicates to the UE that systeminformation associated with a particular function has changed.Accordingly, at the corresponding system information window 830 whichmay occur after another DRX cycle 832, the UE powers up its receiver toreceive in the PDSCH the SIBm from the eNodeB 101 a, which is associatedwith a configuration of the function performed by the UE 104 a.

In one example, the control message may indicate a new pagingnotification which identifies that a group of one or more networkcontrolled functions may have changed and that configuration informationfor one or more of the functions in this group should be received toupdate the function(s). A paging message may then indicate which ofthese network controlled within the group is to be updated and for thisnetwork controlled function the corresponding configuration information(SIB) should be received. Alternatively the SIB1 can identify which ofthe functions out of the group should be updated and the correspondingSIB received.

In one example, the control message may indicate a new pagingnotification which identifies that SIBs for a certain standard orspecification such as a new release of LTE standard has changed. Forexample, Release-13 UEs are not capable of decoding SC-PTM. Hence if theSIB20 has changed or some other Release-14 relevant SIB has changed,only the Release-14 UEs capable of decoding SIB20 will recognise theindication provided in the control message and therefore power up toreceive the new SIB20. Accordingly UEs not capable for receiving theSIB20 such as a Release-13 UE will not power-up to receive the SIB20because they will not recognise SIB20 to decode SIB20.

In an example embodiment, the paging notification may contain only adownlink control indicator (DCI) carried by the PDCCH/MPDCCH/NPDCCH,where the CRC is scrambled with a new RNTI, which is provided toindicate that for example there has been a change in a SIB. This may bereferred to as a Specific SIB Change RNTI (SSC-RNTI). Only UEs that areaware of this SSC-RNTI such as low capability Release-14 UEs (forexample for eNB-IoT and Rel-14 feMTC UEs) are able to decode this DCI.In an example implementation, the SSC-RNTI is equal to the SC-N-RNTI,where Release-13 NB-IoT and Rel-13 eMTC UEs that are not capable ofreceiving SC-PTM services would not be able to detect this new pagingnotification and avoid having to re-read the SIB unnecessarily ascompared to using the SI change notification. Hence, a reduced powerconsumption is achieved for these low capability Release-13 UEs. Howeverthe Release-14 UEs (eNB-IoT and feMTC UEs) would re-read SIB20 forchanges to SC-MCCH configurations.

It will be appreciated that if there are SIB changes for both UEsbelonging to different groups such as UEs configured according todifferent version of a standard such as legacy UEs and new UEs) then theeNodeB can reuse the existing system information change notification tonotify changes to both types of UE. Therefore, for example, both typesof UEs will check the scheduling information for SIB changes, includingSIB20, so that both SIB20 and another SIB can be updated at the sametime.

According to another example, the paging notification can include anRNTI, which can be a release-specific RNTI, referred to as a ReleaseSpecific RNTI (RSC-RNTI). If there is a SIB change that affects only aparticular version of a standard, such as Release-14 UEs, whichindicates an SIB20 change, then the RSC-RNTI is used in the pagingnotification. As a result, only Release-14 UEs (and beyond), which maybe configured to decode the SC-PTM service, are triggered to receive thechanged SIBs. These Release-14 UEs can therefore re-read either only theRelease-14 specific SIBs or the full set of SIBs. If a SIB changeaffects UEs of any release, the normal SI-RNTI is used.

The above description has discussed different types of UE (e.g.Release-13/Release 14; SC-PTM-capable/non-capable) monitoring differenttypes of RNTI (SI-RNTI, SSC-RNTI, RSC-RNTI etc.) at the same pagingoccasion. In other embodiments, the different types of UE monitordifferent paging occasions. For example, Release-13 UEs would monitorthe paging occasions that are defined for Release-13 UEs. Release-14 UEswould monitor either (1) both the Release-13 and Release-14 pagingoccasions or (2) just the Release-14 paging occasions. If there is a SIBupdate that affects just Release-14 UEs, the paging occasion that isonly applicable to Release-14 UEs is used to transmit the pagingnotification.

In another example embodiment the paging notification may also includean indication of changes to the scheduling of the indicated SIB. Thisnew scheduling of the SIB can be indicated in the DCI or in acorresponding paging message carried by the PDSCH. In the latterexample, the DCI would provide a downlink grant of communicationsresources in the PDSCH to carry this paging message.

In another example embodiment, the changes to the SIB are included inpaging notification itself. For example, when a low capabilityRelease-14 UE (eNB-IoT or feMTC UEs) detects a DCI using a SC-N-RNTI ina paging notification, it would proceed to obtain the downlink grantfrom this DCI and decode the corresponding paging message carried by thescheduled PDSCH. This paging message would contain the SC-MCCHconfiguration information (i.e. information in SIB20).

In another embodiment, the paging notification can be used to indicatechanges to a group of SIBs. For example, the paging notification canindicate which SIBs, which are related to features supported by a groupof UEs has changed.

According to one example the paging notification uses a conventionalsystem information update procedure, except that the RNTI is set suchthat only UEs supporting a specific feature (e.g. NB-IoT SC-PTM) willcontinue to SIB acquisition of a specific SIB. However, in anotherexample specific paging occasions are configured which may include thepaging notification of a SIB change. This provides an advantage that theUE will not “miss” paging occasions due to very long DRX. With long DRX,the UE may need to check SIB1 to confirm whether SIBs have changed, incase the DRX is longer than a system information modification period orMCCH modification period for the example of SC-PTM. To avoid requiring aUE to receive the SIB1 again, the fixed location of SSC-RNTI is checkedby the UE.

As will be appreciated, coverage enhancement techniques can be used fora group of UEs which may differ from another group of UEs. Coverageenhancement techniques can include repeated transmission of the sameinformation, which can be combined at a receiver to increase thelikelihood of being able to detect the information. As such UEs withdifferent coverage enhancement techniques can provide different servicesor different types of service. For example an SC-MCCH may be differentdepending on different levels of coverage enhancement. As such, in someexamples, the paging notification can notify changes to SC-MCCH atdifferent coverage levels using different SCC-RNTI indicators. As such achange to the SC-MCCH for one coverage enhancement level may besignaling by a different SCC-RNTI and so the change of the correspondingsystem information may be managed separately.

Second Example of an Improved Technique

According to example embodiments of the present technique a UE may beconfigured to receive multicast data transmitted in accordance with theSC-PTM service whilst the UE is in an idle mode. As such the eNodeB maynot be aware of that the UE is currently receiving downlink multicastdata. However some classes of UE such as low capability devices (MTCdevices or IoT devices) may be resource restricted and so may not beable to receive the multicast data whilst also receiving downlink dataaccording to a conventional unicast transmission when the UE is in aconnected mode. This is because for example different narrowbandcommunications may be required at one or both of baseband or radiofrequency whereas the UE may have a limited communications bandwidth forreceiving data. In other examples, the UE may be power limited and somay not be able to establish a connection with the eNodeB for receivingthe downlink data and continue to perform other functions such asstreaming video from a WiFi link. The eNodeB may need to prioritise thetransmission of downlink data with respect to other functions performedby the UE.

In one example a UE in idle mode may be receiving SC-PTM, for example toreceive a scheduled software update, but must still monitor for paging,for example to receive important notifications from the network. Anexample of an important notification may be a command to shut off thegas supply in case of emergency. Embodiments of the present techniquetherefore seek to introduced a prioritisation in whether to establishthe connection for receiving the downlink link data as a unicasttransmission, because it may be more important in some cases to completethe broadcast service reception, such as a software update, because theUE may need to wait some time until the next time the service isbroadcast, and the paging may be for some a less important service suchas requesting a meter reading. In other cases the unicast service shouldhave priority, for example, an urgent report is required from the deviceand for a UE in idle mode, a paging message requesting a connection forreceiving this report may thus have higher importance.

In some example a priority may be fixed between downlink requests fromthe network, such as making paging a higher priority than a multicasttransmission. However in other examples other factors may be consideredin order to provide flexibility to handle all cases and hence amechanism can give the network control over different messages.

According to one example embodiment of the present technique, the UEnotifies the network of an ongoing SC-PTM reception in a pagingresponse. This particularly this may be indicated by the selection of aspecific preamble sequence from a particular group of sequences, or itmay be in the RRC signaling, in the RRC Connection Request or RRCConnection Setup Complete messages. The eNodeB can then decide whetherto prioritise the unicast service, or to abort RRC establishment so theUE can continue to receive the broadcast service (such as a softwareupdate). The indication may alternatively be used by the network toconfigure the unicast service on the same carrier as the broadcastservice or on a narrowband carrier, assuming the broadcast and unicastservice can be configured on different resources of the same carrier. Inthis example, both unicast and multicast services can be received by theUE—in which case it makes sense for the UE to indicate ongoing SC-PTMservices or interest in all connection establishment procedures, so thatthe network can configure unicast services accordingly.

FIG. 9 provides a schematic illustration according to an exampleembodiment of the present technique. As shown in FIG. 9 a UE 104 and aneNodeB 101 a are shown to operate in accordance with an exampleembodiment in which each comprises a transmitter and a receiver andcontroller as explained for the example embodiments of the firstimprovement shown in FIG. 8. In accordance with an example embodiment ofthe present technique the UE may be configured to perform a functionsuch as receiving multicast data transmission in accordance with anSC-PTM service or performing some other processing function whichconsumes power. According to the example shown in FIG. 9, in the firststep, the UE 104 is receiving an SC-PTM service in idle mode, with aneffect that the reception of the SC-PTM services may be unknown to theeNodeB, since the procedure for starting the service may occur in idlemode. Additionally, within a tracking area, the network does not knowthe cell the UE is in and hence paging is sent in all cells in thattracking area, although the SC-PTM services might not be the same in allcells.

As shown in FIG. 9 as an example illustration the eNodeB 101 a isconfigured with the controller 814 and transmitter 810 to transmitmulticast data via an SC-PTM service in a PDSCH as represented by anarrow 901. Accordingly this SC-PTM transmission may be in accordancewith the conventional arrangement shown in FIG. 7. Howevercontemporaneously with the transmission of the multicast data accordingto the SC-PTM service, the eNodeB 101 a determines that it has downlinkdata for transmission to the UE 104 a. Accordingly the eNodeB 101 atransmits a paging message in the PDCCH as shown by an arrow 902. Thepaging message may correspond to the P-RNTI transmitted in arrow 404shown in FIG. 4.

According to this example, contemporaneously with the reception of themulticast data according to the SC-PTM service, the UE may receive aseparate paging message indicating that the eNodeB 101 a has data fortransmission on the downlink as for example illustrated by the exampleshown in FIG. 4. However in accordance with the present technique the UEmay respond by indicating that it is currently occupied with anothertask such as receiving multicast data by an SC-PTM service. Accordinglythe eNodeB may determine that the UE should continue with the functionsuch as receiving the multicast data via the SC-PTM service or determinethat the UE should continue to establish the RRC connection to receivethe downlink data in accordance with a predetermined priority.

As shown in FIG. 9, the UE 104 a proceeds to perform a random accessprocedure as illustrated in FIG. 4 followed by an RRC connection set up.However in response to the paging message 902 the UE 104 transmits anRRC connection request with an indication of a service currently beingperformed by the UE such as for example reception of the SC-PTMmulticast data as represented by an arrow 904. This indication can betransmitted as part of Message 3 or alternatively this can be done usingpreamble partitioning. Upon receipt of the indication that the UE 104 iscurrently receiving data via an SC-PTM service the controller 814determines whether it should continue to transmit the downlink data byestablishing the RRC connection or abort the RRC connection and continuewith the multicast transmission via the SC-PTM service. This process isrepresented by a step 908 in FIG. 9. After the eNodeB has determinedwhether or not the UE should continue performing the function such asreceiving the multicast transmission via SC-PTM, or abort the receptionof the multicast data and continue to establish connection for receivingthe downlink data, the eNodeB transmits in a message 908 an RRCconnection response which is adapted to indicate that the UE 104 ashould either abort the RRC connection set up in favour of receiving themulticast data or stop the reception of the multicast data or otherfunction known to the eNodeB and establish the RRC connection forreceiving the downlink data.

As will be appreciated according to these example embodiments, receivingmulticast data via an SC-PTM service is one example of a functionperformed by a UE which may be interrupted by the transmission of adownlink transmission from the eNodeB in accordance with a predeterminedpriority provided that the eNodeB is aware of the function beingperformed by the UE.

In another example, the UE indicates an ongoing SC-PTM in an RRCConnection Setup complete message. While this implies larger signalingoverhead, and hence more time spent performing signaling, moreinformation can be provided such as specific services being received.This could then be used by the network to decide how to configure a UE.For example, multicast and unicast services may be provided on the samecarrier or narrowband carrier, and the eNodeB will configure the UEaccordingly so that both can be received. The eNodeB can alsopotentially provide “missing” PTM information via unicast, so that theUE can “repair” the service using this missing information or providethe entire PTM information to the UE via unicast.

In the existing SC-PTM, the UE can transmit a Multimedia BroadcastMulticast Service (MBMS) Interest Indication in an RRC connectedmessage. This is used by the network to determine whether to handoverthe UE to another frequency which provides particular MBMS services. Alist of frequencies and priorities can therefore be provided to theeNodeB in order to apply priorities to the services performed by the UE.

According to some examples the UE may transmit an indication of ongoingservices or services which are about to be performed on the currentcarrier or non-network dependent services, which may be provided ondifferent narrowbands or NB-IOT non-anchor carriers. IF a UE cannotreceive multiple narrowbands simultaneously this information is neededduring RRC Connection Establishment in order to either abort a unicastservice establishment or to configure unicast on the same narrowband asbroadcast services.

Various further aspects and features of the present invention aredefined in the following numbered paragraphs:

Paragraph 1. An infrastructure equipment for transmitting data to orreceiving data from one or more communications devices in a wirelesscommunications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising:

-   -   transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals to the        communications devices via a wireless access interface,    -   receiver circuitry configured to receive signals from the        communications devices via the wireless access interface, and        controller circuitry configured to control the transmitter        circuitry    -   to determine that a network controlled function performed by any        of the communications devices which may be transmitting to or        receiving signals from the infrastructure equipment are to        receive updated configuration information for re-configuring the        network controlled function, the configuration information being        broadcast by the infrastructure equipment for the communications        devices to receive, and    -   to transmit a paging notification as a control message in the        control channel indicating that the configuration information        broadcast for the communications devices for the configuration        of the network controlled function has changed, whereby the        communications devices which are configured to perform the        network controlled function are provided with an indication to        receive the updated broadcasted configuration information        associated with the function.

Paragraph 2. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 1,wherein the controller circuitry is configured with the transmittercircuitry

-   -   to form one or more paging occasions in which the communications        devices of the group are configured to detect the paging        notification when the communications devices are in an idle mode        in which the communications devices only receive signals and do        not transmit signals, and    -   to transmit the paging notification in the paging occasions to        the communications devices of the group.

Paragraph 3. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 1 or 2,wherein the paging notification transmitted to the communications of thegroup includes an identification of the configuration information whichis to be updated, and the controller circuitry is configured with thetransmitter circuitry to transmit the updated configuration informationat a predetermined time window.

Paragraph 4. An infrastructure equipment according to any of Paragraphs1, 2 or 3, wherein the communications devices comprises a group of oneor more communications devices which are configured in accordance with aspecification which differs from a configuration specified for othercommunications devices.

Paragraph 5. An infrastructure equipment according to any of Paragraphs1 to 4, wherein the communications devices comprise communicationsdevices which receive signals transmitted from the infrastructureequipment in accordance with a different level of coverage enhancementfrom others of the communications devices.

Paragraph 6. An infrastructure equipment according to any of Paragraphs1 to 5, wherein the network controlled function is a multicastcommunication function, in which data is transmitted by the transmittercircuitry for reception by any of the one or more communications deviceswhich are configured with the multicast communication function, thepaging notification providing an indication that the multicastcommunication function has changed and that the one or morecommunications devices which are configured to perform the multicastcommunication function should receive the configuration informationbroadcast by the infrastructure equipment for re-configuring themulticast communication function.

Paragraph 7. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 6,wherein the multicast communication function is a 3GPP specified singlecell point to multipoint transmission (SC-PTM) function.

Paragraph 8. An infrastructure equipment according to any of Paragraphs1 to 7, wherein the paging notification transmitted in the controlchannel is a radio network temporary identifier, which uniquelyidentifies the network controlled function to be re-configured.

Paragraph 9. A communications device for transmitting data to orreceiving data an infrastructure equipment in a wireless communicationsnetwork, the communications device comprising

-   -   transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals to the        infrastructure equipment via a wireless access interface,    -   receiver circuitry configured to receive signals from the        infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, the        wireless access interface having a time divided structure        providing communications resources arranged in repeated time        divided units of a carrier frequency bandwidth, and including on        the downlink in the time divided units a control channel for        transmitting control channel messages and a shared channel        providing communications resources for allocation to the        communications device to receive data on the downlink, and        controller circuitry configured to control the receiver        circuitry    -   to monitor the control channel for a paging notification        transmitted as a control message, and    -   if the paging notification indicates that a network controlled        function which the communications device is configured to        perform has changed, the receiver circuitry is configured    -   to receive updated configuration information which is broadcast        by the infrastructure equipment for any communications devices        configured to perform the network controlled function to        receive, and the controller circuitry is configured to        re-configure the transmitter circuitry and the receiver        circuitry in accordance with the received updated configuration        information to perform the network controlled function.

Paragraph 10. A communications device according to Paragraph 9, whereinthe controller circuitry is configured to control the receiver circuitry

-   -   to monitor with respect to a temporal reference, one or more        paging occasions in which the paging notification may be        transmitted by the infrastructure equipment to detect the paging        notification when transmitted, each paging occasion being        determined with respect to a number of the time divided units of        the wireless access interface.

Paragraph 11. A communications device according to Paragraph 9 or 10,wherein the controller circuitry is configured to control the receivercircuitry to monitor the control channel for the paging message when ina mode in which the receiver circuitry is configured to receive signalsand the transmitter circuitry does not transmit signals to theinfrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 12. A communications device according to Paragraph 9, 10 or11, wherein the paging notification includes an identification of theconfiguration information which is to be updated, and the controllercircuitry is configured with the receiver circuitry to receive theupdated configuration information at a predetermined time window.

Paragraph 13. A communications device according to any of Paragraphs 9to 12, wherein the communications device is one of a group of one ormore communications devices which are configured in accordance with aspecification which differs from a configuration specified for othercommunications devices.

Paragraph 14. A communications device according to any of Paragraphs 9to 13, wherein the receiver circuitry is configured to receive signalstransmitted from the infrastructure equipment in accordance with adifferent level of coverage enhancement from other communicationsdevices.

Paragraph 15. A communications device according to any of Paragraphs 9to 14, wherein the network controlled function is a multicastcommunication function, in which data is transmitted by theinfrastructure equipment to any communications device which areconfigured with the multicast communication function and received by thereceiver circuitry, the paging notification providing an indication thatthe multicast communication function has changed and that thecommunications device which is configured to perform the multicastcommunication function should receive the configuration informationbroadcast by the infrastructure equipment for re-configuring themulticast communication function.

Paragraph 16. A communications device according to Paragraph 15, whereinthe multicast communication function is a 3GPP specified single cellpoint to multipoint transmission (SC-PTM) function.

Paragraph 17. An infrastructure equipment according to any of Paragraphs9 to 16, wherein the paging notification received in the control channelis a radio network temporary identifier, which uniquely identifies thenetwork controlled function to be re-configured.

Paragraph 18. A method of transmitting data from an infrastructureequipment of a wireless communications network to one or morecommunications devices or receiving data from the one or morecommunications devices at the infrastructure equipment, the methodcomprising

-   -   determining that a network controlled function performed by any        of the communications devices which may be transmitting signals        to or receiving signals from the infrastructure equipment are to        receive updated configuration information for re-configuring the        network controlled function to perform either transmitting data        to or receiving data from an infrastructure equipment, the        configuration information being broadcast by the infrastructure        equipment for the communications devices to receive, and    -   transmitting a paging notification as a control message in the        control channel indicating that the configuration information        broadcast for the communications devices for the configuration        of the network controlled function has changed, whereby the        communications devices which are configured to perform the        network controlled function are provided with an indication to        receive the updated broadcasted configuration information        associated with the function.

Paragraph 19. A method of transmitting data from a communications deviceto an infrastructure equipment in a wireless communications network orreceiving data from an infrastructure equipment, the method comprising

-   -   monitoring the control channel for a paging notification        transmitted as a control message, and    -   if the paging notification indicates that a network controlled        function which the communications device is configured to        perform has changed including one or both of transmitting or        receiving data, receiving updated configuration information        which is broadcast by the infrastructure equipment for any        communications devices configured to perform the network        controlled function to receive, and    -   re-configuring the commutations device in accordance with the        received updated configuration information to perform the        network controlled function.

Paragraph 20. An infrastructure equipment for transmitting data to orreceiving data from one or more communications devices in a wirelesscommunications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising:

-   -   transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals to the        communications devices via a wireless access interface,    -   receiver circuitry configured to receive signals from the        communications devices via the wireless access interface, and        controller circuitry is configured to control the transmitter        circuitry and the receiver circuitry    -   to transmit a paging message to one of the communications        devices currently in a mode in which signals are only being        received by the communications device from the infrastructure        equipment, the paging message indicating that the communications        device should establish a connection with the infrastructure        equipment to receive downlink data transmitted from the        infrastructure,    -   to receive, as part of a procedure for establishing the        connection for transmitting the downlink data, an indication        from the communications device of a function being performed or        about to be performed by the communications device,    -   to determine, in accordance with a predetermined condition,        whether the communications device should continue to establish        the connection for receiving the downlink data from the        communications device, and    -   in accordance with the predetermined condition to transmit an        indication to the communications device either to abandon the        connection for transmitting the data to the communications        device or to establish the connection and to transmit the        downlink data.

Paragraph 21. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 20,wherein the function being performed or about to be performed by thecommunications device includes a multicast communication function, inwhich multicast data is transmitted by the transmitter circuitry forreception by any communications devices which is configured with themulticast communication function, the communications device having beenconfigured to receive the unicast data.

Paragraph 22. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 21,wherein the predetermined condition includes whether the communicationsdevice has a receiver capable of receiving the downlink data and themulticast data contemporaneously, and if the communications device iscapable of receiving the downlink data and the multicast datacontemporaneously to transmit an indication to establish the connectionfor transmitting the downlink data.

Paragraph 23. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 22,wherein the predetermined condition includes determining whether thedownlink data and the multicast data can be received by thecommunications device on the same carrier or narrowband carrier.

Paragraph 24. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 22 or23, wherein the controller circuitry is configured to transmit anindication that the communications device should establish theconnection for receiving the downlink data and the multicast data to beon the same carrier or narrowband carrier if the predetermined conditionindicates that the communication device can receive the downlink dataand the multicast data on the same carrier or narrowband carrier.

Paragraph 25. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 20,wherein the indication of the function being performed or about to beperformed by the communications device is a function which consumesprocessing power, communications bandwidth or consumes electrical powerand a combination of the function being performed or about to beperformed and receiving the downlink data is likely to exceed a limit ofat least one of a processing power, a communications bandwidth or anelectrical power available to the communications device.

Paragraph 26. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 25,wherein the indication of the function being performed or about to beperformed by the communications device is a function which consumes acommunications bandwidth for receiving data or a number of narrowbandcarriers on which the receiver circuitry can receive the downlink data.

Paragraph 27. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 25,wherein the indication of the function being performed or about to beperformed by the communications device is a function which consumes aprocessing power which is limited, the processing power required toreceive data being likely to exceed the limited processing power.

Paragraph 28. An infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 25,wherein the indication of the function being performed or about to beperformed by the communications device is a function which consumeselectrical power, the reception of the downlink data being likely tocause a drain on the electrical power which will exceed the limit in theelectrical power.

Paragraph 29. An infrastructure equipment according to any of Paragraphs20 to 28, wherein the controller circuitry is configured with thetransmitter circuitry and the receiver circuitry to transmit multicastdata to the communications device whilst the communications device is inthe mode which is an idle mode, wherein the indication of the functionperformed or about to be performed by the communications device isreceiving the multicast data, and the predetermined condition determineswhether the communications device should continue to receive themulticast data or to receive the downlink data from the infrastructureequipment.

Paragraph 30. A communications device for transmitting data to orreceiving data an infrastructure equipment in a wireless communicationsnetwork, the communications device comprising

-   -   transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signals to the        infrastructure equipment via a wireless access interface,    -   receiver circuitry configured to receive signals from the        infrastructure equipment via the wireless access interface, and        controller circuitry configured to control the receiver        circuitry    -   to receive a paging message when the communications device is in        an idle mode in which signals are only being received by the        communications device from the infrastructure equipment, the        paging message indicating that the communications device should        establish a connection with the infrastructure equipment to        receive downlink data transmitted from the infrastructure,    -   to transmit, as part of a procedure for establishing the        connection for receiving the downlink data from the        infrastructure equipment, an indication of a function being        performed or about to be performed by the communications device,        and    -   to receive an indication from the infrastructure equipment that        the communications device should either not establish the        connection for receiving the data from the infrastructure        equipment or establish the connection and to receive the        downlink data from the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 31. A communications device according to Paragraph 30, whereinthe function being performed or about to be performed by thecommunications device includes a multicast communication function, inwhich the receiver circuitry is configured to receive multicast datatransmitted from the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 32. A communications device according to Paragraph 31, whereinthe indication received from the infrastructure equipment is toestablish the connection for receiving the downlink data, the receivercircuitry being configured to receive the downlink data and themulticast data contemporaneously.

Paragraph 33. A communications device according to Paragraph 31, whereinthe receiver circuitry is configured to receive an indication that thecommunications device should establish the connection for receiving thedownlink data and he multicast data to be on the same carrier ornarrowband carrier.

Paragraph 34. A communications device according to Paragraph 30, whereinthe indication of the function being performed or about to be performedby the communications device is a function which consumes processingpower, communications bandwidth or consumes electrical power and acombination of the function being performed or about to be performed andreceiving the downlink data is likely to exceed a limit of at least oneof a processing power, a communications bandwidth or an electrical poweravailable to the communications device.

Paragraph 35. A communications device according to Paragraph 34, whereinthe indication of the function being performed or about to be performedby the communications device is a function which consumes acommunications bandwidth for receiving data or a number of narrowbandcarriers on which the receiver circuitry can receive the downlink data.

Paragraph 36. A communications device according to Paragraph 34, whereinthe indication of the function being performed or about to be performedby the communications device is a function which consumes a processingpower which is limited, the processing power required to receive databeing likely to exceed the limited processing power.

Paragraph 37. A communications device according to Paragraph 34, whereinthe indication of the function being performed or about to be performedby the communications device is a function which consumes electricalpower, the reception of the downlink data being likely to cause a drainon the electrical power which will exceed the limit in the electricalpower.

Paragraph 38. A communications device according to in any of Paragraphs31 to 37, wherein the controller circuitry is configured with thereceiver circuitry to receive the multicast data whilst thecommunications device is in the mode which is an idle mode.

Paragraph 39. A method of transmitting data to or receiving data fromone or more communications devices in a wireless communications network,the method comprising

-   -   transmitting a paging message to one of the communications        devices currently in a mode in which signals are only being        received by the communications device from the infrastructure        equipment, the paging message indicating that the communications        device should establish a connection with the infrastructure        equipment to receive downlink data transmitted from the        infrastructure,    -   receiving, as part of a procedure for establishing the        connection for transmitting the downlink data, an indication        from the communications device of a function being performed or        about to be performed by the communications device,    -   determining, in accordance with a predetermined condition,        whether the communications device should continue to establish        the connection for receiving the downlink data from the        communications device, and    -   in accordance with the predetermined condition, transmitting an        indication to the communications device either to abandon the        connection for transmitting the data to the communications        device or to establish the connection and to transmit the        downlink data.

Paragraph 40. A method of transmitting data to or receiving data from aninfrastructure equipment in a wireless communications network, themethod comprising

-   -   receiving a paging message when the communications device is in        an idle mode in which signals are only being received by the        communications device from the infrastructure equipment, the        paging message indicating that the communications device should        establish a connection with the infrastructure equipment to        receive downlink data transmitted from the infrastructure,    -   transmitting, as part of a procedure for establishing the        connection for receiving the downlink data from the        infrastructure equipment, an indication of a function being        performed or about to be performed by the communications device,        and    -   receiving an indication from the infrastructure equipment that        the communications device should either not establish the        connection for receiving the data from the infrastructure        equipment or establish the connection and to receive the        downlink data from the infrastructure equipment.

REFERENCES

-   [1] LTE for UMTS: OFDMA and SC-FDMA Based Radio Access, Harris Holma    and Antti Toskala, Wiley 2009, ISBN 978-0-470-99401-6.-   [2] http://lteinwireless.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/paging-in-lte.html-   [3] RP-161324, “New work item proposal: Enhancements of NB-IoT,”    Vodafone, Huawei, HiSilicon, Ericsson, Qualcomm, RAN #72-   [4] RP-161321, “New WI proposal on Further Enhanced MTC”, Ericsson,    RAN #72-   [5] RP-161324, “New work item proposal: Enhancements of NB-IoT,”    Vodafone, Huawei, HiSilicon, Ericsson, Qualcomm, RAN #72-   [6] RP-161321, “New WI proposal on Further Enhanced MTC”, Ericsson,    RAN #72-   [7] R1-166660 “Higher data rate for feMTC,” Sony, RAN1#86-   [8] R1-167352, “Views on techniques to improve the data rate for    Rel-14 MTC,” NTT DOCOMO, RAN1#86-   [9] R1-081373, “Explicit DTX Signaling with ACK/NAK Bundling in    TDD,” Texas Instruments, Huawei, RAN1#52bis

ANNEX 1

As shown in FIG. 4, each LTE uplink sub-frame may include a plurality ofdifferent channels, for example a physical uplink communications channel(PUSCH) 305, a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) 306, and aphysical random access channel (PRACH). The physical Uplink ControlChannel (PUCCH) may carry control information such as ACK/NACK to theeNodeB for downlink transmissions, scheduling request indicators (SRI)for UEs wishing to be scheduled uplink resources, and feedback ofdownlink channel state information (CSI) for example. The PUSCH maycarry UE uplink data or some uplink control data. Resources of the PUSCHare granted via PDCCH, such a grant being typically triggered bycommunicating to the network the amount of data ready to be transmittedin a buffer at the UE. The PRACH may be scheduled in any of theresources of an uplink frame in accordance with a one of a plurality ofPRACH patterns that may be signaled to UE in downlink signaling such assystem information blocks. As well as physical uplink channels, uplinksub-frames may also include reference signals. For example, demodulationreference signals (DMRS) 307 and sounding reference signals (SRS) 308may be present in an uplink sub-frame where the DMRS occupy the fourthsymbol of a slot in which PUSCH is transmitted and are used for decodingof PUCCH and PUSCH data, and where SRS are used for uplink channelestimation at the eNodeB. The ePDCCH channel carries similar controlinformation (DCI) as the PDCCH, but the physical aspects of PDCCH aredifferent to those of ePDCCH, as discussed elsewhere herein. Furtherinformation on the structure and functioning of the physical channels ofLTE systems can be found in [1].

In an analogous manner to the resources of the PDSCH, resources of thePUSCH are required to be scheduled or granted by the serving eNodeB andthus if data is to be transmitted by a UE, resources of the PUSCH arerequired to be granted to the UE by the eNodeB. At a UE, PUSCH resourceallocation is achieved by the transmission of a scheduling request or abuffer status report to its serving eNodeB. The scheduling request maybe made, when there is insufficient uplink resource for the UE to send abuffer status report, via the transmission of Uplink Control Information(UCI) on the PUCCH when there is no existing PUSCH allocation for theUE, or by transmission directly on the PUSCH when there is an existingPUSCH allocation for the UE. In response to a scheduling request, theeNodeB is configured to allocate a portion of the PUSCH resource to therequesting UE sufficient for transferring a buffer status report andthen inform the UE of the buffer status report resource allocation via aDCI in the PDCCH. Once or if the UE has PUSCH resource adequate to senda buffer status report, the buffer status report is sent to the eNodeBand gives the eNodeB information regarding the amount of data in anuplink buffer or buffers at the UE. After receiving the buffer statusreport, the eNodeB can allocate a portion of the PUSCH resources to thesending UE in order to transmit some of its buffered uplink data andthen inform the UE of the resource allocation via a DCI in the PDCCH.For example, presuming a UE has a connection with the eNodeB, the UEwill first transmit a PUSCH resource request in the PUCCH in the form ofa UCI. The UE will then monitor the PDCCH for an appropriate DCI,extract the details of the PUSCH resource allocation, and transmituplink data, at first comprising a buffer status report, and/or latercomprising a portion of the buffered data, in the allocated resources.

Although similar in structure to downlink sub-frames, uplink sub-frameshave a different control structure to downlink sub-frames, in particularthe upper 309 and lower 310 subcarriers/frequencies/resource blocks ofan uplink sub-frame are reserved for control signaling rather than theinitial symbols of a downlink sub-frame. Furthermore, although theresource allocation procedure for the downlink and uplink are relativelysimilar, the actual structure of the resources that may be allocated mayvary due to the different characteristics of the OFDM and SC-FDMinterfaces that are used in the downlink and uplink respectively. InOFDM each subcarrier is individually modulated and therefore it is notnecessary that frequency/subcarrier allocation are contiguous however,in SC-FDM subcarriers are modulated in combination and therefore ifefficient use of the available resources are to be made contiguousfrequency allocations for each UE are preferable.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An infrastructure equipment fortransmitting data to or receiving data from one or more communicationsdevices in a wireless communications network, the infrastructureequipment comprising: transmitter circuitry configured to transmitsignals to the communications devices via a wireless access interface,receiver circuitry configured to receive signals from the communicationsdevices via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitryconfigured to control the transmitter circuitry to determine that anetwork controlled function performed by any of the communicationsdevices which may be transmitting to or receiving signals from theinfrastructure equipment are to receive updated configurationinformation for re-configuring the network controlled function, theconfiguration information being broadcast by the infrastructureequipment for the communications devices to receive, and to transmit apaging notification as a control message in the control channelindicating that the configuration information broadcast for thecommunications devices for the configuration of the network controlledfunction has changed, wherein the paging notification is a Specific SIBChange RNTI (SSC-RNTI), whereby the communications devices which areconfigured to perform the network controlled function are provided withan indication to receive the updated broadcasted configurationinformation associated with the function.
 2. The infrastructureequipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller circuitry isconfigured with the transmitter circuitry to form one or more pagingoccasions in which the communications devices of the group areconfigured to detect the paging notification when the communicationsdevices are in an idle mode in which the communications devices onlyreceive signals and do not transmit signals, and to transmit the pagingnotification in the paging occasions to the communications devices ofthe group.
 3. The infrastructure equipment as claimed in claim 1,wherein the paging notification transmitted to the communications of thegroup includes an identification of the configuration information whichis to be updated, and the controller circuitry is configured with thetransmitter circuitry to transmit the updated configuration informationat a predetermined time window.
 4. The infrastructure equipment asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the communications devices comprises a groupof one or more communications devices which are configured in accordancewith a specification which differs from a configuration specified forother communications devices.
 5. The infrastructure equipment as claimedin claim 1, wherein the communications devices comprise communicationsdevices which receive signals transmitted from the infrastructureequipment in accordance with a different level of coverage enhancementfrom others of the communications devices.
 6. The infrastructureequipment as claimed in claim 1, wherein the network controlled functionis a multicast communication function, in which data is transmitted bythe transmitter circuitry for reception by any of the one or morecommunications devices which are configured with the multicastcommunication function, the paging notification providing an indicationthat the multicast communication function has changed and that the oneor more communications devices which are configured to perform themulticast communication function should receive the configurationinformation broadcast by the infrastructure equipment for re-configuringthe multicast communication function.
 7. The infrastructure equipment asclaimed in claim 6, wherein the multicast communication function is a3GPP specified single cell point to multipoint transmission (SC-PTM)function.
 8. The infrastructure equipment as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe paging notification transmitted in the control channel is a radionetwork temporary identifier, which uniquely identifies the networkcontrolled function to be re-configured.
 9. A communications device fortransmitting data to or receiving data in a wireless communicationsnetwork, the communications device comprising: transmitter circuitryconfigured to transmit signals via a wireless access interface, receivercircuitry configured to receive signals via the wireless accessinterface, the wireless access interface having a time divided structureproviding communications resources arranged in repeated time dividedunits of a carrier frequency bandwidth, and including on the downlink inthe time divided units a control channel for transmitting controlchannel messages and a shared channel providing communications resourcesfor allocation to the communications device to receive data on thedownlink, and controller circuitry configured to control the receivercircuitry to monitor the control channel for a paging notificationtransmitted as a control message, and in response to the pagingnotification indicating that a network controlled function which thecommunications device is configured to perform has changed, wherein thepaging notification is a Specific SIB Change RNTI (SSC-RNTI), thereceiver circuitry is configured to receive updated configurationinformation which is broadcasted for any communications devicesconfigured to perform the network controlled function to receive, andthe controller circuitry is configured to re-configure the transmittercircuitry and the receiver circuitry in accordance with the receivedupdated configuration information to perform the network controlledfunction.
 10. The communications device as claimed in claim 9, whereinthe controller circuitry is configured to control the receiver circuitryto monitor with respect to a temporal reference, one or more pagingoccasions in which the paging notification may be transmitted by theinfrastructure equipment to detect the paging notification whentransmitted, each paging occasion being determined with respect to anumber of the time divided units of the wireless access interface. 11.The communications device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the controllercircuitry is configured to control the receiver circuitry to monitor thecontrol channel for the paging message when in a mode in which thereceiver circuitry is configured to receive signals and the transmittercircuitry does not transmit signals to the infrastructure equipment. 12.The communications device as claimed in claim 9, wherein the pagingnotification includes an identification of the configuration informationwhich is to be updated, and the controller circuitry is configured withthe receiver circuitry to receive the updated configuration informationat a predetermined time window.
 13. The communications device as claimedin claim 9, wherein the communications device is one of a group of oneor more communications devices which are configured in accordance with aspecification which differs from a configuration specified for othercommunications devices.
 14. The communications device as claimed inclaim 9, wherein the receiver circuitry is configured to receive signalstransmitted from the infrastructure equipment in accordance with adifferent level of coverage enhancement from other communicationsdevices.
 15. The communications device as claimed in claim 9, whereinthe network controlled function is a multicast communication function,in which data is transmitted by the infrastructure equipment to anycommunications device which are configured with the multicastcommunication function and received by the receiver circuitry, thepaging notification providing an indication that the multicastcommunication function has changed and that the communications devicewhich is configured to perform the multicast communication functionshould receive the configuration information broadcast by theinfrastructure equipment for re-configuring the multicast communicationfunction.
 16. The communications device as claimed in claim 15, whereinthe multicast communication function is a 3GPP specified single cellpoint to multipoint transmission (SC-PTM) function.
 17. A communicationsdevice for transmitting data to or receiving data from an infrastructureequipment in a wireless communications network, the communicationsdevice, comprising: transmitter circuitry configured to transmit signalsto the infrastructure equipment via a wireless access interface,receiver circuitry configured to receive signals from the infrastructureequipment via the wireless access interface, and controller circuitryconfigured to control the receiver circuitry to receive a paging messagewhen the communications device is in an idle mode in which signals areonly being received by the communications device from the infrastructureequipment, the paging message indicating that the communications deviceshould establish a connection with the infrastructure equipment toreceive downlink data transmitted from the infrastructure, to transmit,as part of a procedure for establishing the connection for receiving thedownlink data from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of afunction being performed or about to be performed by the communicationsdevice, and to receive an indication from the infrastructure equipmentthat the communications device should either not establish theconnection for receiving the data from the infrastructure equipment orestablish the connection and to receive the downlink data from theinfrastructure equipment, wherein the indication is a pagingnotification including a Specific SIB Change RNTI (SSC-RNTI) indicatingthat a group of one or more network controlled functions has changed.18. The communications device as claimed in claim 17, wherein thefunction being performed or about to be performed by the communicationsdevice includes a multicast communication function, in which thereceiver circuitry is configured to receive multicast data transmittedfrom the infrastructure equipment.
 19. The communications device asclaimed in claim 18, wherein the indication received from theinfrastructure equipment is to establish the connection for receivingthe downlink data, the receiver circuitry being configured to receivethe downlink data and the multicast data contemporaneously.
 20. Thecommunications device as claimed in claim 18, wherein the receivercircuitry is configured to receive an indication that the communicationsdevice should establish the connection for receiving the downlink dataand he multicast data to be on the same carrier or narrowband carrier.